She Looks so Beautiful

Abstract

This article offers a story that illustrates how the medium of music is able to provide comfort, even in extreme cases of hopelessness, when all other efforts seem futile. I will relate how the creative act of music-making within an institutional setting, was able to provide comfort to a self-injurious female psychiatric client, who had been institutionalised all her life, to restore a sense of beauty and dignity which had been lost. The music that was created in the moment was also able to carry and support all the individuals who were creating it - even in the most desperate moments where those that were supposed to be "in command" were experiencing a sense of uncertainty. The story further demonstrates how a client, a care-worker and a therapist, three individuals from very diverse backgrounds and life circumstances, were able to transcend their different histories to come together and connect on a level which they have not been able to do outside the music therapy room.